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Sunday, July 15, 2012

1953 Feb 13 - "Police Push Ahead with Refinement of Foreigner Whores"

This February 13, 1953 article from the South Korean newspaper Gyeonghyang Sinmun is evidence that "comfort women" (military prositutes) were registered with local police departments at the time.

The reference to "elevating their patriotic feelings" was probably a reference to their being told that they were patriots for earning foreign currency for their country, which is what other foreign prostitutes in Korea have claimed they were told by Korean government officials.

Here is my translation:

Police Push Ahead with Refinement of Foreigner Whores

(ChunCheon) To control the loose morals of the so-called “western wives” (foreigner whores) and instill cultural enlightenment while also maintaining good health and elevating their patriotic feelings, the Chunchen Police Department have formed the “United Belief Society” (협심회) to organize the "western wives" under their jurisdiction.

They say there are 160 pimps, 115 women cohabitating with UN troops, and 667 “comfort women” registered with them, but only sixty-two (8.2%) are infected with venereal disease and are currently receiving treatment at the Chuncheon Provincial Clinic.

When I was in Korea in the navy in the late 1970s, those women cohabitating with UN troops were called "yobos," to whom you would pay about $200 a month to house and feed you and take care of you sexually. The women seemed to like that better than working in the clubs.